My Only Link, A Love Story
by UnderdogAngel
Summary: When the U.S.O visits the 4077, they really shake things up. Especially when Sarah asks Father Mulcahy about her brother, who was killed in combat. She needs to find the ballet shoes his fianceé gave him. But who is his fiancée? This is her story.


**This is my first M*A*S*H fic, and probably my only one.**

**It's centered around the episode "That's Show Biz," in which a U.S.O. troupe visits the 4077th. Among the group is Sarah Miller, whose brother was wounded in the war, and died at the 121st Evac Hospital. When his personal effects were returned, there was an item missing -something given him by his fianceé the night before he shipped out. He treasured the item as his only link to her.**

**We never get to meet Sarah's brother, or her brother's fianceé, and I started wondering what sort of people they were. This is their story.**

**The brother's name is from an episode called "Letters", in which Hawkeye's friend in Maine, a teacher, has all her students write to the members of the 4077th. One of the letters that Hawkeye gets is from a little boy whose brother was fixed up at a M*A*S*H, then killed in action. He hates the war, and the doctors. He says that the doctors just fix people up so they can go out and get killed. The little boy's name was Keith. That's where I got Sarah's brother's name.**

**As for his fianceé, I named her after the Irish folk song "Sweet Molly Malone," a song that Sarah's brother taught her to play and sing. So the fianceé's name is Molly Malone.**

**Here's the story. Enjoy.**

**-My Only Link-**

I sat on the bed next to his open suitcase and watched as he slowly filled it. His clothes, pictures -everything he cherished was soon inside, ready to be taken off to their next destination.

I was ready to cry, but I wouldn't let myself cry in front of him. I had been ready to cry for the past week. I could last one more night.

I looked at him as he knelt down on the floor in front of me. He smiled up at me sadly. "It's not forever," he said quietly, stroking my cheek with his fingertips.

I blinked back tears. "But...but," I stuttered. "What if...What if you don't come back?"

"Shh. Shh..." he quietly hushed. "Don't think that way. Of course I'll come back. And, as soon as I do, we'll have that dream wedding of ours, and get that house we both love so much."

Tears were falling now, and I leaned forward and hugged him tightly. "I love you, Keith Miller."

I knew he was smiling. He leaned back and brushed my hair out of my face. "And I love you, my sweet Molly Malone."

Yes, just like the song.

I smiled, though tears still ran down my face.

The year was 1952. Keith was being shipped out. To Korea.

All the people who called it merely a "police action" could go jump in a lake. It was a war. And Keith was being sent right into the middle of it. Somewhere near Ouijongbu. His sister, Sarah, and I had been beside ourselves for a week.

Sarah was such a sweet girl. She had beautiful brown hair that fell in graceful waves over her shoulders, big brown eyes, and the most beautiful singing voice. She also played the guitar. I knew she was going to be a star someday. She was the best sister anyone could ask for. And she had the best brother, in my book.

I loved him so. And I prayed to God every night that, no matter where Keith went or what happened, that He would keep him safe and bring him home to Sarah and I.

It was getting late, and I had to go home, but I hated to leave. I hugged Keith as tightly as I could. I never wanted to let him go. I knew in my heart I might never see him again.

"Now, don't you worry about me," he said. "You go on and be the best ballerina you can be."

I laughed a little through the tears still streaming down my face. How could I continue dancing when he was in Korea?

I opened my bag. "I have something for you." I pulled out one of my old pairs of toe shoes.

"Oh, Molly... No, I couldn't."

"Yes, you can," I said, putting them in his hands. "Just...think of them as...a keepsake."

He pulled me close and I took deep breaths, breathing him in so I wouldn't forget the smell. "I love you."

"I love you, too," I whispered back.

He rocked me gently back and forth, singing "Sweet Molly Malone" quietly in my ear.

_"In Dublin's fair city,  
__Where the girls are so pretty,  
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone.  
She wheeled her wheelbarrow  
Through streets broad and narrow,  
Crying, 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh._

_Alive, alive, oh. Alive, alive, oh.'  
Crying, 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh.'_

_She was a fish monger,  
__And that was no wonder,  
For so were her father and mother before.  
They all wheeled their barrows  
Through streets broad and narrow,  
Crying, 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh._

_Alive, alive, oh. Alive, alive, oh.'_

_Crying, 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh.'"_

And, just like that, he was gone.

He boarded a plane to San Fransisco, California, then went to Tokyo, Japan, and then he was in Korea.

Sarah and I worried about him day and night. Our worrying was broken only by the letters and pictures he sent. He wrote to me every day. I didn't know how I was going to survive, especially when Sarah joined the U.S.O. and went to Korea as well. She wrote me as well, telling me all about traveling and performing for the troops.

Her troupe included three other talented girls, and the emcee, Fast Freddie Nichols. He fancied himself a comedian, but Sarah told me she and the other girls didn't find his jokes all that funny. I guess you can only take so much after you've seen his show ten times.

The famous Brandy Doyle was along for the ride. In her younger days, she'd "entertained" (if you follow my meaning) the troops. (I suppose the correct term for what she was would be a stripper.) Now that she was a little older, she sang and partnered with Freddie in skits. Sarah said she often talked of how the young troops didn't know who she was anymore, and how "being famous isn't nearly as much fun when nobody knows it."

Sarah's singing partner was a young girl from Washington, Marina Ryan. According to Sarah, she had the makings of a famous actress. Marina often dreamed of being on Broadway, but, when one is in Korea, everything seems so far out of reach.

Rounding out the troupe was Eleanor "Ellie" Carlyle. She was a graduate of Julliard! Imagine! But, in the U.S.O., she played the accordian. It didn't win her a lot of respect with the music crowd, she said, but it helped her make end's meet.

Sarah and Marina sang a song that Keith had taught Sarah, and one that I was very familiar with. "Sweet Molly Malone". She said she thought of me and of Keith everytime she sang it.

Reading Keith and Sarah's letters and looking at the pictures they sent made me not worry so much. Keith even called me once from his unit, and Sarah called whenever she got a chance.

I had lost so much worry that I went back to dancing. Like Keith had told me, I was going to be the best ballerina I could possibly be. If not to make me happy, then to make him happy.

Then, one day, the letters stopped coming. A week went by, and nothing. The mail was slow, but it had never been this slow before.

After a week and a half, Sarah called. She was so distraught I could hardly understand what she was saying. I understood "Molly" and "Keith," but not much else.

"Calm down, sweetie," I said gently. "Tell me what's wrong."

She took a deep breath. "Keith...Keith's dead," she stuttered out.

I stood there next to the phone, my eyes wide. My brain had stopped functioning.

"Wha...what?"

"He...he had a head wound. The doctors tried to fix him up, but..."

I fell into a chair behind me, tears starting to fall. "No," I whispered.

"And, as if things weren't bad enough... Molly, the toe shoes are gone."

"What?"

"He treasured those as his only link to you. And...they returned his effects, and I can't find the shoes. Oh, Molly, I'm afraid they've been stolen!"

"Oh, Sarah!"

Both of us were sobbing now.

"They- They're going to cut us off, Molly."

"Mm-hmm," I mumbled.

"Don't worry, Molly. I'm going to find those shoes if it kills me."

"Don't say that," I said. "I can't believe it."

"Me either," she said. "I did find a letter addressed to you that he hadn't mailed yet. Would you like me to mail it?"

"Yes, please, Sarah."

"Alright. I'll talk you soon. And don't worry about me."

"I'll do my best. Goodbye, Sarah."

"Goodbye, Molly."

I hung up the phone and sat there -I didn't know for how long- and cried. I cried until I was purely exhausted.

Keith was dead. He was never coming home. The war had killed him. I hated the war, now more than ever. It had taken away the man I loved.

We'd never get married. We'd never buy that house. I'd never get to hear him sing to me again. I'd never hold him or kiss him again. Echoes of his voice ran through my mind, but it wasn't the same.

**;;;;;**

About a week later, I got the letter Sarah had spoken of. Keith's last letter to me.

I sat looking at the envelope for a very long time. I knew I had to open it. But it was eerie. As if it were a letter he had sent me from Heaven.

After a long internal debate, I carefully opened the letter. Just looking at his handwriting was enough to make me cry. But I blinked them back so I could read the letter. It was short, but it said enough to last a lifetime.

_My sweet Molly,_

_I wish this letter could be longer, as with many of my letters, but the war keeps us all pretty busy. I know you can't help but worry your pretty little head about me, but don't. I've been lucky so far. Just a leg wound is all._

_I know, it sounds horrible, but I've been sent to MASH 4077. "Best Care Anywhere," their sign says, and believe it. Their survival rate is 98%, Molly. That's amazing! I couldn't be around better doctors and nurses._

_Dr. Pierce (known around here as Hawkeye) operated on my leg. It wasn't enough to send me home, but at least it didn't kill me, Mols. I told him all about you. And how we're getting married when I get home. He says you sound like just about the most terrific girl on the whole East Coast. And he's from the East Coast! Crab Apple Cove, Maine, to be exact._

_Then there's the head nurse, Major Margaret Houlihan. She acts like she doesn't like Hawkeye at all, and yet she tells everyone what a terrific surgeon he is. I think, deep down, she really does like him, no matter of all the practical jokes that I've heard about. She also acts like she doesn't like her nurses, but she does care about them. And the wounded. She does care. She just, as she tells me, has to be hard on them so that they don't go soft. I don't know where she's from. She says she's an army brat, so she's never really had a permanent home._

_The other surgeons are Captain B.J. Hunnicutt -Captain Pierce's best friend- and Major Charles Emerson Winchester III. Apparently, B.J. stands for "anything you want." He's a nice guy, Hunnicutt. A family man. I can see why he's a dad. He makes such a good one._

_Charles, on the other hand, graduated from Harvard and was raised in Boston. He has an ego big enough to fill a room. But I believe, under all the pomposity and you-are-beneath-me-ness, he does care. Though he holds B.J. in a low view because he's from California. Mill Valley, right by San Francisco. We should go see it together when I get home. San Francisco, I mean. It's a beautiful city._

_The camp chaplain is Father Mulcahy. He seems gentle and a bit naive, but he's got a right hook that could take anyone out. Somehow I feel safer knowing that the Father can wrestle more than just temptation._

_The commanding officer is Colonel Sherman Potter. He's from Hannibal, Missouri. He's regular army, and he has a horse named Sophie. He knows how to crack down on the troops, but he's really loving._

_And the company clerk is Corporal Klinger. He's trying to get out on a Section 8 (which basically means you are insane and unfit to be in the army) to go back to his home of Toledo, Ohio, but Potter isn't buying it. Apparently, he used to dress in womens' clothes. Hopefully, I won't have to resort to that, right?_

_They're all a great group, Mols. I wish you could meet them. And, who knows? Maybe you will, back in the States._

_They're shipping me out now, Molly. I have to go. But I love you. And keep dancing._

_I should be home soon. Then we'll do everything we planned to do._

_Love you always, Molly._

_Keith_

That started me crying again. I was just so tired. He was gone.

But at least he'd been taken care of before he left. MASH 4077 sounded like quite a group. Maybe I would visit their hometowns, someday. Talk to them about Keith.

A couple days later, I got a letter from Sarah. She was still on the hunt for the 121st evac hospital, where Keith had died, and the toe shoes. She felt that she was close. I certainly hoped she was.

**;;;;;**

I didn't hear anything from Sarah for almost a month. I was starting to get worried. Then I got a package from her.

I tore it open. Inside were the toe shoes I had given Keith.

I hugged them close to me. She'd found them!

I opened the letter and sat down to read it. She was writing from the 4077 MASH, just like Keith had been!

The doctors and nurses had helped her to find out that all the head wounds were sent to the 8063 MASH, so they made a call down there, and the chaplain there found the shoes!

I was so happy, I started dancing around the house. Keith was gone, but at least I had a last link to him -his only link to me.

Maybe I could make it now.

Sarah would be returning home soon, and then we could both pursue our dreams.

We each had our stages, and we were going to take them. With Keith watching over us.


End file.
